The Assessment of Pathologists/Laboratory Medicine Physicians Through a Multisource Feedback Tool

Context.-There is increasing interest in ensuring that physicians demonstrate the full range of Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education competencies. Objective.-To determine whether it is possible to develop a feasible and reliable multisource feedback instrument for pathologists and laboratory medicine physicians. Design.-Surveys with 39, 30, and 22 items were developed to assess individual physicians by 8 peers, 8 referring physicians, and 8 coworkers (eg, technologists, secretaries), respectively, using 5-point scales and an unable-to-assess category. Physicians completed a self-assessment survey. Items addressed key competencies related to clinical competence, collaboration, professionalism, and communication. Results.-Data from 101 pathologists and laboratory medicine physicians were analyzed. The mean number of respondents per physician was 7.6, 7.4, and 7.6 for peers, referring physicians, and coworkers, respectively. The reliability of the internal consistency, measured by Cronbach alpha, was >=.95 for the full scale of all instruments. Analysis indicated that the medical peer, referring physician, and coworker instruments achieved a generalizability coefficient of .78, .81, and .81, respectively. Factor analysis showed 4 factors on the peer questionnaire accounted for 68.8% of the total variance: reports and clinical competency, collaboration, educational leadership, and professional behavior. For the referring physician survey, 3 factors accounted for 66.9% of the variance: professionalism, reports, and clinical competency. Two factors on the coworker questionnaire accounted for 59.9% of the total variance: communication and professionalism. Conclusions.-It is feasible to assess this group of physicians using multisource feedback with instruments that are reliable. (Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2009; 133: 1301-1308)